The Toy Wife
Encyclopedia
The Toy Wife is a 1938
drama film
directed by Richard Thorpe
. The period film was produced by Merian C. Cooper
, written by Zoe Akins
and had Luise Rainer
and Melvyn Douglas
in the leading roles.
, The Toy Wife tells the story of Frou-Frou, a 16-year-old coquette
. She has been in France
to attend a prestigious school, but is now returning to her family plantation
in Louisiana
. Craving to go to New Orleans, she fakes a toothache to visit a dentist there. She is chaperoned by Madame Vallaire, but soon ditches her to attend a ball. There, she meets Vaillare's son Andre, a wastral whom she is immediately attracted to.
After returning home, Frou-Frou and her older sister Louise befriend Georges Sartoris, a family friend who received a knife wound after prosecuting a white man for killing a black slave. Louise is in love with him, but encourages her sister to marry him after finding out Georges is more interested in Frou-Frou. As suggested, Frou-Frou and Georges marry. Five years later, their four-year-old son celebrates his birthday. Georges is worried his wife is after all those years still youthful and flirtatious.
Fearing she would be unable to give up her life style to become attached to the household, Georges asks Louise to teach her sister how to be a wife. Things don't work out as planned and eventually it is Louise who is doing all the chores. Meanwhile, Frou-Frou becomes reacquainted with Andre while rehearsing a new play she will star in. At home, she realises her sister is taking over her life, winning over the heart of both Georges and her son. Outraged, she confronts Louise and soon elopes with Andre.
Six months later, Frou-Frou's father Victor is informed by Madame Vallaire that his daughter and Andre are currently living in New York City. Distraught, Victor collapses and dies the same day. Meanwhile, Frou-Frou and Andre are living in poverty due to Andre's gambling debts. Her father's will leaves her with half of his plantation, but she forfeits her share to her son Georgie. When she and Andre return to New Orleans, jealous ex-husband Georges challenges Andre to a duel. Everybody supects Andre to win, but he is shot and killed. It is hinted that Andre had purposely chosen to be the loser in the duel, because he chose pistols as the weapons, rather than his actual preference of swords.
Time goes by and Frou-Frou is now a poor woman, dying of pneumonia. One evening, while praying in church, she is noticed by Louise. She makes Georges realize that Frou-Frou become the woman she was for him, explaining that was what he really wanted. Touched, he visits Frou-Frou and finally allows her to see her son again. He takes her back home and is told there by Frou-Frou he should marry Louise. Soon after, Frou-Frou dies.
. 1938 in the film industry
was the year of the revival of interest in the American Civil War
. Gone with the Wind
was a huge success and a movie adaption
was already in works. With Warner Bros.
distributing Jezebel as well, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
knew they couldn't be left behind. A Civil War-themed film was rushed into production, eventually released as The Toy Wife.
The film starred Luise Rainer
, an actress who was labeled as difficult to work with. She had become famous in a short period by winning two Oscars for her portrayal of Anna Held
in The Great Ziegfeld
(1936) and O-Lan in The Good Earth
(1937). Suddenly, the public didn't care about her anymore and she angered studio head Louis B. Mayer
by constantly demanding a higher salary. His reaction was casting her in B-films only, including The Toy Wife.
There was a schedule conflict during the production, which forced director Richard Thorpe
to withdraw from the direction of The Shopworn Angel
(1938), a drama film starring Margaret Sullavan
and James Stewart
. There was a lack of a big budget. By casting Rainer, the studio couldn't afford a famous male lead and assigned Melvyn Douglas
instead. Greer Garson
was at one point considered for the role of Louise, but Rainer and Thorpe objected to the idea.
calling her portrayal "wound too tightly for anybody's comfort". The critic also noted she was being "too feminine". Neither she nor the studio was happy with the results.
Rainer told her casting in this movie was a failed punishment, because she insisted she loved working with Douglas. Rainer was known for hating Hollywood and all the insiders, but described Douglas as a loving person, who was one of the few caring about more than acting. Nevertheless, Rainer ended her contract with the studio the same year and retired from the film industry.
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
. The period film was produced by Merian C. Cooper
Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.-Early life:...
, written by Zoe Akins
Zoe Akins
Zoë Akins was an American playwright, poet, and author.- Early years :Born in Humansville, Missouri, Akins was educated in Illinois and later in St. Louis, where she began her writing career...
and had Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
and Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
in the leading roles.
Plot
Set during the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, The Toy Wife tells the story of Frou-Frou, a 16-year-old coquette
Flirting
Flirting is a playful, romantic, or sexual overture by one person to another subtly indicating an interest in a deeper relationship with the other person, and can involve verbal communication as well as body language...
. She has been in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to attend a prestigious school, but is now returning to her family plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Craving to go to New Orleans, she fakes a toothache to visit a dentist there. She is chaperoned by Madame Vallaire, but soon ditches her to attend a ball. There, she meets Vaillare's son Andre, a wastral whom she is immediately attracted to.
After returning home, Frou-Frou and her older sister Louise befriend Georges Sartoris, a family friend who received a knife wound after prosecuting a white man for killing a black slave. Louise is in love with him, but encourages her sister to marry him after finding out Georges is more interested in Frou-Frou. As suggested, Frou-Frou and Georges marry. Five years later, their four-year-old son celebrates his birthday. Georges is worried his wife is after all those years still youthful and flirtatious.
Fearing she would be unable to give up her life style to become attached to the household, Georges asks Louise to teach her sister how to be a wife. Things don't work out as planned and eventually it is Louise who is doing all the chores. Meanwhile, Frou-Frou becomes reacquainted with Andre while rehearsing a new play she will star in. At home, she realises her sister is taking over her life, winning over the heart of both Georges and her son. Outraged, she confronts Louise and soon elopes with Andre.
Six months later, Frou-Frou's father Victor is informed by Madame Vallaire that his daughter and Andre are currently living in New York City. Distraught, Victor collapses and dies the same day. Meanwhile, Frou-Frou and Andre are living in poverty due to Andre's gambling debts. Her father's will leaves her with half of his plantation, but she forfeits her share to her son Georgie. When she and Andre return to New Orleans, jealous ex-husband Georges challenges Andre to a duel. Everybody supects Andre to win, but he is shot and killed. It is hinted that Andre had purposely chosen to be the loser in the duel, because he chose pistols as the weapons, rather than his actual preference of swords.
Time goes by and Frou-Frou is now a poor woman, dying of pneumonia. One evening, while praying in church, she is noticed by Louise. She makes Georges realize that Frou-Frou become the woman she was for him, explaining that was what he really wanted. Touched, he visits Frou-Frou and finally allows her to see her son again. He takes her back home and is told there by Frou-Frou he should marry Louise. Soon after, Frou-Frou dies.
Cast
- Luise RainerLuise RainerLuise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
as Gilberte 'Frou Frou' Brigard - Melvyn DouglasMelvyn DouglasMelvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
as George Sartoris - Robert YoungRobert Young (actor)Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
as Andre Vallaire - Barbara O'NeilBarbara O'Neil-Early life and career:Barbara O'Neil was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She began her acting career in summer stock. In July 1931 Bretaigne Windust, Charles Leatherbee , and Joshua Logan, the three directors of the University Players, a three-year old summer stock company at West Falmouth on Cape...
as Louise Brigard - H. B. WarnerH. B. WarnerH. B. Warner was a British actor.-Early life:He was born Henry Byron Charles Stewart Warner-Lickford in St John's Wood, London, England in 1875...
as Victor Brigard - Alma KrugerAlma Kruger-Career:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kruger had a long career on stage before appearing in films. From 1907 to 1935, she starred in many theatre plays on Broadway, mostly in Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet , Twelfth Night , Taming of the Shrew , and The Merchant of Venice .She appeared in...
as Madame Vallaire - Libby Taylor as Suzanne
- Theresa Harris as Pickaninny 'Pick'
- Walter KingsfordWalter KingsfordWalter Kingsford was a British stage, film and television actor born in Redhill, Surrey, England. He was born Walter Pearce and had several sisters...
as Judge Rondell - Clinton RosemondClinton RosemondClinton Rosemond was an American actor in films from the 1940s and 50s. Often typecast as a butler or servant, and often uncredited due to a lack of film roles for African-American actors, Rosemond was frequently relegated to playing demeaning parts, such as a stereotypical "scared Negro." He died...
as Pompey - Clarence MuseClarence MuseClarence Muse was an actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first African American to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years, and appeared in more than 150 movies.-Life and career:Born in...
as Brutus - Leonard Penn as Gaston Vincent
Production
The film is based upon the French play Froufrou by Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac, premiering in 1869. The film is often referred to as a costume dramaCostume drama
A costume drama or period drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era.The term is usually used in the context of film and television...
. 1938 in the film industry
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
was the year of the revival of interest in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
was a huge success and a movie adaption
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
was already in works. With Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
distributing Jezebel as well, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
knew they couldn't be left behind. A Civil War-themed film was rushed into production, eventually released as The Toy Wife.
The film starred Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
, an actress who was labeled as difficult to work with. She had become famous in a short period by winning two Oscars for her portrayal of Anna Held
Anna Held
Helene Anna Held was a Polish-born stage performer, most often associated with impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, her common-law husband. -Early life:...
in The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 musical film produced by MGM. A fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin...
(1936) and O-Lan in The Good Earth
The Good Earth (film)
The Good Earth is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S...
(1937). Suddenly, the public didn't care about her anymore and she angered studio head Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
by constantly demanding a higher salary. His reaction was casting her in B-films only, including The Toy Wife.
There was a schedule conflict during the production, which forced director Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
to withdraw from the direction of The Shopworn Angel
The Shopworn Angel
The Shopworn Angel is a 1938 American drama film directed by H.C. Potter. The MGM release featured the second screen pairing of Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart following their successful teaming in the Universal Pictures production Next Time We Love two years earlier...
(1938), a drama film starring Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
and James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
. There was a lack of a big budget. By casting Rainer, the studio couldn't afford a famous male lead and assigned Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
instead. Greer Garson
Greer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
was at one point considered for the role of Louise, but Rainer and Thorpe objected to the idea.
Reception
Although the studio thought the film would be a hit, it became a flop. The Toy Wife was dismissed as a tearjerker and the plot was heavily criticized. Rainer received a lot of negative criticism, with The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
calling her portrayal "wound too tightly for anybody's comfort". The critic also noted she was being "too feminine". Neither she nor the studio was happy with the results.
Rainer told her casting in this movie was a failed punishment, because she insisted she loved working with Douglas. Rainer was known for hating Hollywood and all the insiders, but described Douglas as a loving person, who was one of the few caring about more than acting. Nevertheless, Rainer ended her contract with the studio the same year and retired from the film industry.